The Kilkennys bring their own brand of folk to Rhyl

Irish folk band The Kilkennys will be at Pavilion Theatre, Rhyl in May

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Three of the band are from Kilkenny apart from Rob who is from Laois. But his mother is from Kilkenny so he qualifies to be in the band his friends said

In any event they all went to St.Ciaran’s College in Kilkenny.

Tommy said: “We were all friends, into sport and all that, but we discovered along the way that we all had a sort of folk/traditional past.

“Our dads used to play in pubs so we knew the songs and we got together and thought maybe we could get a few gigs in pubs.

“We started to get a bit of a following from people who had been at college with us. It gradually got a bit bigger with a student following and we were playing gigs every weekend to a couple of hundred people.”

At the start, back in early 2000, their music wasn’t “fashionable” in Ireland but the band persevered.

“Our music wasn’t cool and we kind of kept it to ourselves and I hate to say it but we were a little bit ashamed or embarrassed to put it out there and say ‘hey we like doing this’.

“People were saying that’s old school like the Clancy Brothers or The Dubliners so forget about it — that’s in the past.

“But around 2008 a serious folk revival with the likes of Mumford & Sons and other big folk acts and suddenly it was sexy and cool and fashionable and the last five years for us have been really successful because of that. Internationally it’s cool again,” added Tommy.

Irish folk band The Kilkennys

Choosing material to perform can be a problem in bands but everyone has an equal say in the repertoire.

Davey Cashin said: “It’s always been a democracy. We all bring our ideas to the table and it’s like a band of brothers. We fight and argue but we all love each other.

“If someone has a good idea you can almost immediately tell that there is a consensus, or you can see the eyes start to roll and you can have a fair guess as to what will or won’t work. But that sort of comfortable thing only comes with being together over a long period of time.”